The Comedy Stylings of "Anonymous"

Okay, as promised, I went to see Anonymous today and can report that this film could not have been more hilarious if it had been animated.

With magical movie special effects, the name of William Shakespeare is erased from the parchment.

The Queen really loves plays, especially by guys like Ben Jonson, but noble people like Devere aren't supposed to be playwrights. Nevertheless, Devere hears the muse, like Jonson and Marlowe do (he also apparently hears sirens such as the Queen herself), and so write he must.

So he gets a "beard" to claim authorship on his manuscripts. He wants Jonson first, but Ben is too ethical to do it.

So the plays go on being anonymous for awhile until Shakespeare, the inarticulate drunken actor, seizes the chance to take the bow when the screaming groundlings call for the author.

Here we see William Shakespeare leaping into the mosh pit and crowd surfing over the groundlings' heads. Yay Willie!

Shakespeare's notoriety makes both Jonson and Devere a bit annoyed, so Jonson scowls his way through the rest of the movie, including accusing Shakespeare of killing Marlowe.

And Devere, in the rest of the movie, uncovers a series of unfortunate alternative historical scenarios, among which he fathers his own grandson by bedding his mother, the Queen.

Well, most of the movie was just plain confusing to me. My favorite parts were when actual plays were shown being performed. Shakespeare (the work) comes to life.

Anonymous actually opens and closes exactly the same way Branagh's Henry V does, with Derek Jacobi entering (in this case in modern dress) to Greek chorus a prologue (in this case suggesting that we've all been duped for these many centuries).

The film ended up taking itself so seriously that it was impossible for me to do so. Honestly, I need to go watch Shakespeare in Love again. It did a much more plausible job of tracing the origins of genius back to its proper source: the inexplicable depths of a human soul.